Clear skies and steady seeing tonight. Bootes, Corona Borealis, and Hercules were at the zenith allowing good views of the large globular cluster in Hercules, M13. Later the camera was trained on the Ring nebula (M57) and the star Vega, in Lyra. The last image is an enhanced black and white image showing the nebula’s central star. The nebula images are 40 exposures unfiltered with the Meade DSI color CCD. Previous to obtaining these exposures I had to take a series of dark frames. This requires covering the telesope with the dust cover so no light enters the tube, and then taking the dark frames – this will calibrate the CCD and reduce noise in the images. The result is images with a clear, black background. I will slightly increase the exposure times at the next observing session to try to bring out more color. Click on images to enlarge.